After consulting with my colleagues, my staff, my family, and my conscience, I will regretfully not be attending the address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the House Chamber on Tuesday.

Worse than any Jim Crow poll tax, the Voter ID law attacks social and economically vulnerable citizens' very identity as they consider exercising their most precious freedom. It intimidates and threatens long before election day.

We harm ourselves every day when we deport 1,100 people. We put U.S. citizen children in foster care or the care of others or we send them out of the country. A generation of kids has grown up with the threat of deportation of mom or dad.

The practice of hospitality, especially to strangers (the Bible's term for outsiders or people not of your tribe, clan or national group), is one of the most central teachings of the Jewish and Christian scriptures.

Republican pandering to Puerto Ricans will end with the closing of the polls Sunday. Then, it's back to immigrant-bashing and fear mongering. And these Republican candidates will learn that a few days of empty promises in Puerto Rico won't fool Latinos anywhere.

Gabino Sanchez cannot get a driver's license, cannot get legal immigration papers and must drive to support his family. His misdemeanor criminal history is a product of his undocumented status combined with a heavy dose of good old-fashioned racial profiling for DWB (Driving While Brown).

That community finds itself in dire straits in Alabama under its new law HB 56, which, even after a court ruling temporarily blocking some provisions from being enforced, continues to wreak havoc among families made up of immigrants, legal residents and citizens, and continues to affect the economy and the image Alabama is projecting to the country and the world.

This week the Puerto Rico legislature debated a resolution of censure condemning me for speaking out against their abuses. By questioning my right to speak out on behalf of free speech, they have made my point crystal clear.

We simply cannot continue approving permits that are rife with false claims such as support from experts who have long since passed away or environmental impact reports on animals that don't even reside in the region.

Even while the elite political establishment has been engrossed with the elections, the grassroots has never taken its focus off alleviating the pain felt by people whose lives are affected by our dysfunctional immigration system.